Blanchard top Griz at MSU heptathlon
1/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
University of Montana senior Michael Blanchard finished third in the heptathlon at the Montana State multi-events meet at Bozeman Tuesday. The five Montana and Montana State heptathletes competing held the same five spots they had following Monday???s four events.
Blanchard finished with 4,601 points, just under his previous Big Sky Conference-qualifying mark of 4,654 he had at Eastern Washington in early December.
Junior Evan Stokken was fourth with 4,444 points, junior Chris Hicks, who no-heighted in the pole vault Tuesday, was fifth with 3,821 points.
Stokken, like Blanchard, finished below his qualifying mark of 4,532 at Eastern Washington.
Hicks, who finished sixth in the heptathlon at the Big Sky indoor championships as a sophomore and has a career best of 5,015 points, will get another shot at meeting the 4,500-point qualifying standard when Montana???s multi-event athletes compete again at Washington State Friday and Saturday, Jan. 22-23.
Montana State???s Asa Staven won five of the seven events over the two days to win the heptathlon with 5,304 points. MSU???s Jeff Mohl was second with 4,838 points.
???I think they all looked pretty good coming off Christmas break,??? UM multi-events coach Adam Bork said. ???I was happy with what they did for the most part.
???In the next week and a half we???ll get them ready to go again and get our final qualifying out of the way, then we can focus on conference and getting everyone???s marks where we need them to be.???
Stokken took over third place from Blanchard after Tuesday???s opening event, the 55-meter hurdles. Staven and Stokken finished well ahead of the field, coming in at 7.99 and 8.03.
Hicks ran an 8.61, while Blanchard ran a career-best 8.63.
Blanchard retook third place when he finished second to Staven in the pole vault with a mark of 14-6.25.
Stokken went 12-6.75, while Hicks did not record a height.
Hicks came back to win the final event, the 1,000 meters, in 2:57.93, giving Montana its only event victory.
Blanchard was second in 3:01.24. Stokken was fifth in 3:07.93.
Montana???s full team will compete for the first time this indoor season at Washington State. The Big Sky Conference indoor championships will be held in Bozeman Feb. 26-27.
